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unboggling · 01-07-2014, 07:15 PM

I expanded abbreviations for genres, types, awards, source. I think the only short metadata elements I have left now are in the rating columns #formatq and #read. If a few abbreviations of metadata elements got past me, I'll eventually sniff them out.

After some discussion over in chaley's Plugboard thread, I gave a hard rethink to my use of primary and secondary genres. Then redid them, while expanding abbreviations. Now #genres is for high-level genres only, preferably just one per book but two is okay for now. The "secondary" genres I moved from #genres into a new column #keywords -- they got expanded and promoted.

And I terminated use of exclamation point as a primary genre prefix and @ as an award prefix. With abbreviations expanded the primary genres and the awards are unique enough not to need the poor little prefix symbols. Bless their little symbol hearts for all the sorting and uniquifying work they provided over the years . . . but they got fired.

Some reasons for these changes:

I'm much better at searching now than 2 years ago. So I don't need to always see at a glance in the booklist all of the values in a comma-separated text column. So abbreviations aren't as necessary. In search bar I don't have to type the entire tag; using a "contains" search I can type just the first 3 or 4 letters of a tag -- just as fast as the old abbreviation.
I'm more experienced with templates and plugboards now. Can shorten things as necessary such as: {#genres:shorten(3,,0)} or {#genres:.3}
Abbreviations don't allow simple comparative searches between key words or phrases in (Comments, Series, or Title) and key abbreviated words or abbreviated phrases in for example (#genres). It's like comparing apples and oranges, they don't match.
The exclamation point and @ prefixes were ugly and clunky (despite their best effort). I don't care anymore which metadata element is sorted to leftmost in the column, and additional uniqueness is now redundant.
It's part of an ongoing effort to clean up all of my fields and metadata elements.

Party

Spoiler:

01-07-2014, 07:15 PM	#65
unboggling Wizard Posts: 1,065 Karma: 858115 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kobo Clara, Kindle Paperwhite 10	I expanded abbreviations for genres, types, awards, source. I think the only short metadata elements I have left now are in the rating columns #formatq and #read. If a few abbreviations of metadata elements got past me, I'll eventually sniff them out. After some discussion over in chaley's Plugboard thread, I gave a hard rethink to my use of primary and secondary genres. Then redid them, while expanding abbreviations. Now #genres is for high-level genres only, preferably just one per book but two is okay for now. The "secondary" genres I moved from #genres into a new column #keywords -- they got expanded and promoted. And I terminated use of exclamation point as a primary genre prefix and @ as an award prefix. With abbreviations expanded the primary genres and the awards are unique enough not to need the poor little prefix symbols. Bless their little symbol hearts for all the sorting and uniquifying work they provided over the years . . . but they got fired. Some reasons for these changes: I'm much better at searching now than 2 years ago. So I don't need to always see at a glance in the booklist all of the values in a comma-separated text column. So abbreviations aren't as necessary. In search bar I don't have to type the entire tag; using a "contains" search I can type just the first 3 or 4 letters of a tag -- just as fast as the old abbreviation. I'm more experienced with templates and plugboards now. Can shorten things as necessary such as: {#genres:shorten(3,,0)} or {#genres:.3} Abbreviations don't allow simple comparative searches between key words or phrases in (Comments, Series, or Title) and key abbreviated words or abbreviated phrases in for example (#genres). It's like comparing apples and oranges, they don't match. The exclamation point and @ prefixes were ugly and clunky (despite their best effort). I don't care anymore which metadata element is sorted to leftmost in the column, and additional uniqueness is now redundant. It's part of an ongoing effort to clean up all of my fields and metadata elements. Party Spoiler: The keywords really like their job promotions and new dedicated home. They're singing off-key bawdy songs at their combined promotion and house-warming party. They graciously invited @ and !, who secluded themselves away from the festivities in the corner of the patio behind a potted tree, whispering conspiratorially. The newly fattened genres like being the only genres in town. They're at the party too. Swaggering around... The source and types folks made a brief but weighty appearance. Then apparently all went off together to a convention in Las Vegas. The awards people didn't even bother to show up, except for @, who doesn't represent them anymore. Last edited by unboggling; 02-07-2014 at 12:15 AM. Reason: Cut unneeded para.